Meditation helps patients find calm while fighting cancer

Updated 3:47 pm, Friday, October 26, 2012

Photo: Karen Warren

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Alejandro Chaoul, discusses the basics of meditation during the meditation class for cancer patients and caregivers at the MD Anderson Mays Clinic, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, in Houston. Chaoul, professor at MD Anderson, teaches meditation to cancer patients that helps them cope with their anxiety and allows them to sleep better. The inability to sleep well is a complication faced by many cancer patients and affects their treatment. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle )

Bree Sandlin, who has breast cancer, listens during the meditation class.

Bree Sandlin, who has breast cancer, listens during the meditation class.

Photo: Karen Warren

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Alejandro Chaoul, third from left, discusses the basics of meditation for cancer patients and caregivers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Mays Clinic. Chaoul leads free classes to help cancer patients cope with anxiety and the disease's tough treatment.

Alejandro Chaoul, third from left, discusses the basics of meditation for cancer patients and caregivers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Mays Clinic. Chaoul leads free classes to help

Alejandro Chaoul leads a discussion during the meditation class for cancer patients and caregivers at the MD Anderson Mays Clinic, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, in Houston. Chaoul, professor at MD Anderson, teaches meditation to cancer patients that helps them cope with their anxiety and allows them to sleep better. The inability to sleep well is a complication faced by many cancer patients and affects their treatment. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle )

Already dealing with the pressures of a busy life, Bree Sandlin was skeptical about using meditation to ease the additional stress from her breast cancer treatment.

Sandlin, 37, works at a high-pressure marketing job in Houston and is bringing up 5-year-old twin boys, one of whom has cerebral palsy. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in July, "It was quite a shock," Sandlin said.

Sandlin and her husband, Stephen, eat all the right foods, exercise and generally lead a healthy lifestyle.

"The idea that it could happen to us - that was terrifying," she said.

Sandlin had heard good things about the program and was willing to give it a try despite some reservations. She showed up for Chaoul's class at M.D. Anderson's Mays Clinic on a recent Tuesday morning, hoping meditation would help relieve the stress of her complicated life and ease the grueling chemo sessions. She left the class convinced that it would.

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"Visualization and breathing were great techniques to release the little things in life we get caught up on," Sandlin said after the class.

She was one of 14 people in a class that included cancer patients and their relatives, cancer survivors and a mom who said she found that meditation calmed her and "keeps me from being so snippy." The classes are open to anyone.

Chaoul has been running the meditation classes and individual sessions for 13 years as part a program that considers a patient's overall well-being as key to successful cancer treatment.

A student of Tibetan religion and meditation, Chaoul came to Houston from Argentina in 1996 to enter the religious studies program at Rice University. One of his Tibetan teachers was stricken with cancer, and his father came to M.D. Anderson in 1998 for treatment. Chaoul first learned about the famed cancer treatment center when he accompanied his father to an interview there.

'I wanted to help'

Chaoul, who had trained for a decade in meditation, volunteered his services to the vice president of medical affairs. "I just felt I wanted to help here," he said. Meditation had been used by other hospitals, Chaoul knew, but rarely with cancer patients.

He was put off for nearly a year before being allowed to begin a class. He first obtained approval from his mentor, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a teacher in the Tibetan Bon tradition, as well as advice from another teacher, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, who had been recently diagnosed with cancer.

He called the new class "connecting with your heart."

Chaoul later introduced Tibetan sound meditation to help with the loss of memory that affects some patients after chemotherapy.

The patients sit in a semicircle facing Chaoul, some on cushions and some in chairs. With his back to a glass wall covered with a translucent shade, he tells his students to let thoughts come and go without holding onto them.

"We call it the 'monkey mind' because it's going from branch to branch," grasping at thoughts and dwelling on them, Chaoul says. He wants the class to be in the moment.

Why should a bad incident that lasts only a few minutes ruin the rest of your day? he asks. Don't dwell on bad experiences, Chaoul tells the students.

Grant funds study

The class proved popular with patients, and in 2000 he became an M.D. Anderson employee. That year Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, director of the integrative medicine program, asked him about doing a research project. Chaoul, who was working on his doctoral dissertation, agreed. His study, published in 2004, found that meditation helped cancer patients improve sleep quality, prolong sleep and use less sleep medication.

In 2006 the National Cancer Institute gave M.D. Anderson a $2.4 million grant so that Chaoul could study the benefits of Tibetan yoga and meditation for women with breast cancer. The study is complete but the data are still being analyzed. Chaoul is engaged in other research on meditation as well.

Other departments have accepted meditation as a useful tool and refer patients to Chaoul's classes. "I always feel that I'm learning more than I'm giving," he said. "Life has given me an opportunity to be in touch where I can at least give a little bit of help."

Already dealing with the pressures of a busy life, Bree Sandlin was skeptical about using meditation to ease the additional stress from her breast cancer treatment.

Sandlin, 37, works at a high-pressure marketing job in Houston and is bringing up 5-year-old twin boys, one of whom has cerebral palsy. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in July, "It was quite a shock," Sandlin said.

Sandlin and her husband, Stephen, eat all the right foods, exercise and generally lead a healthy lifestyle.

"The idea that it could happen to us - that was terrifying," she said.

Her chemotherapy was well under way at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Center when she attended a meditation class led by Alejandro Chaoul, assistant professor in the hospital's integrative medicine program.

Sandlin had heard good things about the program and was willing to give it a try despite some reservations. She showed up for Chaoul's class at M.D. Anderson's Mays Clinic on a recent Tuesday morning, hoping meditation would help relieve the stress of her complicated life and ease the grueling chemo sessions. She left the class convinced that it would.

"Visualization and breathing were great techniques to release the little things in life we get caught up on," Sandlin said after the class.

She was one of 14 people in a class that included cancer patients and their relatives, cancer survivors and a mom who said she found that meditation calmed her and "keeps me from being so snippy." The classes are open to anyone.

Chaoul has been running the meditation classes and individual sessions for 13 years as part a program that considers a patient's overall well-being as key to successful cancer treatment.

A student of Tibetan religion and meditation, Chaoul came to Houston from Argentina in 1996 to enter the religious studies program at Rice University. One of his Tibetan teachers was stricken with cancer, and his father came to M.D. Anderson in 1998 for treatment. Chaoul first learned about the famed cancer treatment center when he accompanied his father to an interview there.

'I wanted to help'

Chaoul, who had trained for a decade in meditation, volunteered his services to the vice president of medical affairs. "I just felt I wanted to help here," he said. Meditation had been used by other hospitals, Chaoul knew, but rarely with cancer patients.

He was put off for nearly a year before being allowed to begin a class. He first obtained approval from his mentor, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a teacher in the Tibetan Bon tradition, as well as advice from another teacher, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, who had been recently diagnosed with cancer.

He called the new class "connecting with your heart."

Chaoul later introduced Tibetan sound meditation to help with the loss of memory that affects some patients after chemotherapy.

The patients sit in a semicircle facing Chaoul, some on cushions and some in chairs. With his back to a glass wall covered with a translucent shade, he tells his students to let thoughts come and go without holding onto them.

"We call it the 'monkey mind' because it's going from branch to branch," grasping at thoughts and dwelling on them, Chaoul says. He wants the class to be in the moment.

Why should a bad incident that lasts only a few minutes ruin the rest of your day? he asks. Don't dwell on bad experiences, Chaoul tells the students.

Grant funds study

The class proved popular with patients, and in 2000 he became an M.D. Anderson employee. That year Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, director of the integrative medicine program, asked him about doing a research project. Chaoul, who was working on his doctoral dissertation, agreed. His study, published in 2004, found that meditation helped cancer patients improve sleep quality, prolong sleep and use less sleep medication.

In 2006 the National Cancer Institute gave M.D. Anderson a $2.4 million grant so that Chaoul could study the benefits of Tibetan yoga and meditation for women with breast cancer. The study is complete but the data are still being analyzed. Chaoul is engaged in other research on meditation as well.

He became a member of the faculty in 2011 and a visiting professor at the UT Health Science Center's McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics. He teaches meditation to faculty and staff at both institutions.

Other departments at the center have accepted meditation as a useful tool and regularly make referrals to Chaoul's classes.

"I always feel that I'm learning more than I'm giving," Chaoul said. "Life has given me an opportunity to be in touch where I can at least give a little bit of help."